Springs Fire efforts down to mop-up

The largest Southern California wildfire of the season was 85-percent contained Monday as hundreds of firefighters from across the West mopped up during a sporadic drizzle before readying their engines to head home.

The Springs blaze fueled by Santa Ana winds began Thursday beside the 101 Freeway north of Thousand Oaks before tearing through 28,000 acres to the sea, threatening some 4,000 homes from eastern Ventura County to the hills above Malibu.

Though 15 homes were damaged, not a single residence was lost. Firefighters were expected to fully contain the sodden fire zone by today.

"Certainly, they're taking advantage of the humidity - the rain has been a help," said Cal Fire spokesman Tom Piranio, who noted the tenth of an inch that fell overnight. "We're now in the process of mopping up, and demobilizing.

"We're working on buttoning this up."

The fire started near Camarillo Springs, beside the southbound 101 a quarter-mile north of the truck scales on the Conejo Grade, said Cal Fire, which ruled out arson. The cause was an "undetermined roadside ignition of grass/debris."

Powerful Santa Ana winds coupled with near triple-digit temperatures soon drove the fire to the Pacific Ocean, as it tripled in size to 44 square miles while causing the evacuation of 5,000 students at California State University Channel Islands, as well as thousands of residents from their homes.

Deer fled before the firestorm. Residents scrambled led to pack pets and essentials. And both firefighters and residents worried the Springs Fire that belched smoke across the region would repeat of a 1993 fire that torched much of the same ground, destroying 53 homes.

Before it was over, the offshore winds even did an about-face - similar to the Green Meadow fire of two decades ago - threatening thousands of homes.

At its peak, some 1,856 firefighters in more than 200 engines from six Western states worked shifts of up to 48 hours to save mobile homes, subdivisions and tony villas along the Santa Monica Mountains, from Newbury Park to the Malibu Hills to exclusive estates in Hidden Valley, home of such celebrities as Ellen DeGeneres, Jamie Foxx and Tom Selleck.

The blaze also forced the evacuation of more than 100 horses, some valued at up to $5 million each.

While the fire had singed a coastal rifle range at Naval Base Ventura County, firefighters rallied to save a $1 billion naval communications site atop Laguna Peak. They were assisted by water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing firefighting aircraft.

They also saved Cal State Channel Islands, as well as avocado and strawberry farms bordering the Oxnard plain.

In all, 15 homes were damaged and 10 outbuildings destroyed, including four commercial properties, Cal Fire said. One of those was a partial storage yard at Laguna Farms, where farmers denied any hazardous materials had burned, as initially reported.

Five firefighters sustained minor injuries, including two from falls and three from debris in their eyes.

Firefighters credited aggressive brush clearance by homeowners, as well as an incident command system first employed by the Ventura County Fire Department.

The estimated cost Monday of fighting the blaze was $9.1 million, which was expected to rise, Piranio said. Efforts were already underway to try to recoup some of the cost from Uncle Sam. "There are funding (requests) that the state is working on in conjunction with the federal government about payment," he said.

By Monday, all mandatory road closures and evacuations had been lifted. Some 800 firefighters had already returned to stations throughout California, as well as New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. More than 1,000 firefighters prepared to demobilize.

They will leave behind an acrid swath of steep, blackened hillsides and ravines, their sycamores, ceanothus and prickly pear burned to the nubs, with damaged trails and campgrounds within the sprawling state and national park system.

Coby King, an avid hiker, said one of his favorite places may be marked for decades to come, especially with the loss of majestic trees near Point Mugu State Park, where La Jolla Canyon, Sycamore Canyon and the Boney Mountain Wilderness were damaged in the blaze.

"I'm disappointed and saddened," said King, 51, of West Hills. "It's an absolute special place, the kind that gives you a sense of what this place was like before we got here.

"These big old trees, they won't come back overnight," he said. "It's very sad."